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After being flooded with fake wedding photos, false forms and forged signatures, the Canadian government is sounding the alarm over immigration fraud.
Officials launched a campaign yesterday warning potential immigrants they could be removed from Canada if they enter under false pretences.
The warning came in a video the government posted on the Internet, and will be carried in brochures sent out in different languages to Canadian visa offices around the world. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney also issued a warning about immigration consultants, saying they don't get you in faster, and if you hire one it had better be from the government's approved list.
Kenney's political opponents say unscrupulous consultants are the real problem -- and that the scams will persist until the government starts regulating that industry.
The minister described the elaborate hoaxes people orchestrate to bolster their application chances.
Department officials say they've received forged signatures and letterhead from imposters using the names of members of Parliament and doctors; fraudulent death certificates; and letters from Canadian funeral-home employees who don't exist.
Kenney recounted his recent visit to Canada's consulate in northern India where there's a "wall of shame'' -- a mosaic of falsified papers tacked up for all to see.
During that trip, he said he learned of a burgeoning industry in which immigration fraud is given a festive twist.
"I heard about the growth of so-called 'marriage palaces', where actors are hired to play the part of guests at weddings,'' Kenney told a House of Commons committee.
"This is done to create fraudulent marriage photos to fool our visa officers. Some fraud is perpetrated by applicants and some by unscrupulous immigration representatives.''
Tech-savvy, well-educated Indian and Chinese immigrants are packing it up in greater numbers in the United States and heading back home, This, according to Duke professor and Harvard researcher Vivek Wadhwa.
He conducted a survey on why recent returnees elected to go back to India and China for the Kauffman Foundation.
"The majority of people like it better back home," Wadhwa said. "The U.S. isn't everything anymore ... This is great for India and China, but what we've done is export economic recovery."
He estimates that while 50,000 Indian and 50,000 Chinese immigrants returned home in the past 20 years, there will be 100,00 Indians and 100,000 Chinese immigrants leaving the U.S. in the next five years.
The factors driving return were not primarily visa issues, the survey found, but feelings that career opportunities were better at home, a desire to be close to friends and family, and better quality of life.
The survey randomly polled 1,203 Indian and Chinese employees in their home countries who had worked or gone to school in the U.S. and who were members of the social networking site LinkedIn.com.
The United States of America has for the first time in its long history, a person of African ancestry in the white house.
No longer is the "top job in the country" a position held exclusively by persons of Caucasian/European ancestry.
But what about Canada? Sure we've "beaten the United States to the punch" with having a female Prime Minister (Kim Campbell June 1993 - December 1993) before the United States having a female President (which may still someday happen).
But what about persons of non Caucasian/European ancestry? Canada has yet to elect our first black Prime Minister.
With immigration being one of our strong points, something Canadians can be most proud of, our extremely diverse society, We have yet to elect a person from a visual minority onto our top posting.
Is it because immigration is "still very new?
Not at all, Many of the visible minorities have been in this country for quiet some time, Many of the families here today, the so called "immigrants" are actually 2nd and even third/fourth generation in Canada.
Immigrants from Far East Asia began settling in Canada as far back as the 1880's.
Immigrants from South Asia began to call Canada there new home in 1908.
Persons from the African continent and the carribean also started to look at Canada as a new home at the beginning of the 1900's.
With such a rich cultural diversity our country has to offer, It's only a matter of time before Canada see's it's first non Caucasian/European Prime Minister.
The election of President Barack Obama to the white house could be just the extra motivation that's needed for a young, energetic up and coming politician of our own here in Canada, to realize that they too can dream that much higher, Aspire for the very top, not just settle for "a seat in the house" or "a spot in the government caucus"
It's only a matter of time before we elect Prime Minister Sing, or Prime Minister Singh....
Can we do it? YES WE CAN!
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